A Portland-area woman who broke her spine in four places while riding her mountain bike over a fallen tree on a Hood River race course has dropped a $273,000 lawsuit against the race’s organizers.

The reason Lisa Belair decided to drop her suit against the Fat Tire Farm bicycle store in Northwest Portland and Hurricane Racing in Government Camp -- with no money exchanging hands -- isn’t clear. Her Bend attorney, Tim Williams, declined comment, and Belair also couldn’t be reached by The Oregonian/OregonLive for comment.

After filing her Dec. 22 lawsuit, Belair took a beating on social media. Some competitive mountain-biking racers criticized her for filing suit, saying they believe they alone are personally responsible for any injuries they suffer from the natural obstacles they encounter on their rides. Some riders worried that Belair’s lawsuit could discourage race organizers from hosting events.

Park Chambers, the owner of Fat Tire Farm, declined to comment about the lawsuit’s dismissal. But in an emailed statement, Chambers said that because the suit was dismissed, “the future of mountain bike racing in (the) state of Oregon has a somewhat brighter outlook.”

“No one likes to see accidents happening during events,” Chambers said in the email. “Mountain bikers, race organizers and promoters work together diligently to avoid such situations. However, all of us who ride bikes competitively have fallen before and we know crashes are part of the activity that we love and chose as participants.”

According to Belair’s suit, she had signed up for the Dog River Super D mountain biking race last May 3 in Hood River. Days before the race, a storm had blown down trees along the course, but the event’s organizers assured riders on the race’s website that trail crews had cleared the trail, the suit claimed.

One fallen tree, however, was left in place because it was too large to move, and it was covered partially with dirt, according to the suit. That created a large jump that wasn’t readily identifiable as Belair rode down the hill and onto it, said Williams, Belair’s attorney, in December.

The course was designed to be a “fast” course, not one with large jumps, he said.

Belair, who is in her 40s, was riding the course before the race when she was launched through the air. She crushed her C1 vertabra in her neck, and also suffered fractures to her T3, T5 and T7 vertebrae.

She has been able to walk and ride her bike, but has suffered constant pain, Williams said.

The suit was filed just four days after the Oregon Supreme Court in December ruled that a Bend teenager who was paralyzed from the waist down at Mt. Bachelor when he crashed off a jump at a terrain park can go forward with his $21.5 million lawsuit against the ski resort.

That’s even though he signed the resort’s blanket liability waiver to get his season pass. The high court said such waivers were “unconscionable.”

Liability waivers are a common part of the required registration process for sporting events, especially off-road mountain biking events.

Belair had sought up to $250,000 for pain and suffering, and $23,307 for past and future medical bills and lost wages.